STATE COLLEGE -- Bill O'Brien made his 2013 Penn State football show radio debut Thursday night in front of a crowd at Damon's in State College. The return of the weekly in-season radio program marks the start of O'Brien's second year on the radio with Steve Jones and it gives fans a chance for an up close look at the coach and gives them the opportunity to ask O'Brien questions.

The blue and white faithful on hand for Thursday night's show had plenty of questions for Penn State's second year head coach and they didn't shy away from asking him about the most pressing issue: Who will start at quarterback on Saturday?

O'Brien was mum on the topic but did offer a few newsy tidbits. He said the team now knows who is starting Saturday's game so naturally either Christian Hackenberg or Tyler Ferguson knows their role for Saturday.

O'Brien previously said both need to be ready to play this season and he did say that the quarterbacks will not be rotating by series on Saturday. He said his decision not to publicly name a starting quarterback stemmed from a belief that he didn't want either player to have added media pressure on top of being new to the program and new to taking classes at Penn State.

"We'll start a guy and he'll play the majority of the game but the other guy will play," O'Brien told the crowd as they looked on.

Other notes not related to the quarterbacks included:

-O'Brien said the team will bring the non-conference game limit of 80 players to MetLife Stadium. Among the players making the trip are several walk-ons. One O'Brien said is making the trip is former Central Mountain standout and freshman walk-on Von Walker.

Walker is listed in a tie for the No. 2 kick returner job with Akeel Lynch. Both are listed behind Bill Belton in that role. O'Brien previously highlighted Walker as someone who will contribute on special teams so I'd expect we'll see that happen on Saturday.

-ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit was the one who originally pitched the Training Days series to O'Brien, the coach said. After admitting he was hesitant at first O'Brien sounded pleased with how the show turned out. He said ESPN did a nice job featuring players like Garry Gilliam and Kyle Carter who are "fantastic kids."

The biggest laugh of the night came from O'Brien describing his role on the show.

"I'm not a rockstar head coach. Look at me I'm a fat, bald guy from Massachusetts," he said.

-O'Brien was asked whether or not the Lions will receive if they win the coin toss on Saturday and he deferred his answer.

"It's not like we're sitting in the Paterno library," he said. "This thing is being broadcasted to a lot of places."

-The closest O'Brien came to sharing his philosophy on redshirting players was by saying that if a freshman hasn't appeared in a game by the fourth week of the season then they most likely will redshirt. If it's later in the season and depth is a concern because of injuries he said it becomes a difficult decision for him and his staff.

-O'Brien estimated that the Nittany Lions have approximately 10 players on their roster who will eventually be playing in the NFL.

-O'Brien fielded one question about New England's quarterbacks as a fan asked him what he'd do if Tim Tebow was part of the Patriots' quarterbacks room when he was there. O'Brien laughed for a few seconds before praising Tebow for the way he handles himself on and off the field.